Dear all, we are organising a workshop for the ECPR Joint sessions at Leuphana University Lüneburg, 25 – 28 March 2024, on "Populist ‘Unpolitics’: How Populist Governments Affect EU Policymaking". The deadline is fast approaching! Deadline: 23/11/2023 What is the workshop about? Populist parties have gained substantial ground in many EU member states over the past decade, with some of them even entering government. This workshop asks whether populist governments change the content and the style of EU policymaking. Drawing on Taggart’s concept of ‘unpolitics’, we ask whether populist governments adopt a destructive approach to EU policymaking that is genuinely different from that of mainstream governments. We invite papers from a wide range of policy areas to see whether and, if so, how populist governments have changed EU policymaking to jointly theorise the conditions under which they behave differently from mainstream parties. Which type of questions are we interested in? 1: Do populist governments differ from mainstream ones in EU policymaking? If yes, how? 2: Do they take a different approach to policymaking (unpolitics) or is it situational (depends on further conditions)? 3: How has the ascent of populist governments in the EU affected EU policy outputs and outcomes? 4: How do mainstream actors deal with the presence of populist governments in EU policymaking? 5: Are all populist governments the same in their behaviour or do we see differences depending on their host ideology? We are interested in papers looking at the following areas: 1: A variety of EU policies that might be affected by the presence of populist governments. 2: The link between unpolitics in EU policymaking and domestic politics. 3: How crises help populist governments in their use of unpolitics. 4: The role of populist governments or populist parties in the implementation of EU policies. 5: The role of populist governments in different EU institutions (Council, EP, EUCO). 6: How mainstream governments deal with the use of unpolitics by populist governments in the EU. 7: A variety of theoretical and methodological angles to investigate unpolitics. If you have any questions about fit or about the workshop, do not hesitate to contact us: ariadna.ripoll@plus.ac.at<mailto:ariadna.ripoll@plus.ac.at> and natascha.zaun@leuphana.de<mailto:natascha.zaun@leuphana.de> Looking forward to seeing you in Lüneburg! Natascha Zaun and Ariadna Ripoll